The Cincinnati Bengals were offered a glimpse of what life is like without starting QB Ken Anderson, a much maligned QB for the first quarter of the season, who from then on arguably put in a Pro Bowl season. Anderson started the Week 16 tussle against the Oilers, going 5/6 with 109 yards and 2 TDs, before being yanked soon after WR Billy Brooks was injured hauling in a 36 yard pass. The Brooks injury served as a mechanism to alert the Bengals to hit the panic button, ushering out all starters and key players as promptly as possible. Out went Isaac Curtis, Tommy Casanova, Jim LeClair, Big Pete, etc. immediately. Turns out it was a smart move, as the Bengals learned soon after the game that Brooks would be lost for the postseason, only being available for the Super Bowl. The Bengals lost a decent contributor to the offense, and could not afford to lose anyone else of significance.
In came John Reaves, a man who had played but few snaps in the regular season, most notably entering a game where Cincinnati lost to Pittsburgh 6-0 in OT. The common denominator: The Bengals have scored exactly 0 points while Reaves is in the game. Granted Reeves showed some flashes of beauty, but they were all too inconsistent, and to boot, the back up was without any semblance of a running game. Even so, John Reeves was far from carving out a good name for himself. After a rare Reaves completion into coverage, coach Slimstud remarked, "The Houston secondary can be terrible." Apparently the Tecmo gods took great offense to this observation, as they laid the wrath not upon Houston, but poor ol' John Reeves, assuring that more than one out of every three passes Reaves threw was intercepted. Reaves ended the day with 8 attempts, 3 completions, and 3 interceptions. When you add in a late second half garbage INT from Anderson, the Oilers finished the game with 4 INTs. In the end, the Bengals still nearly survived the Oilers, losing 21-14, but along the way they caught a glimpse of what life is like without Ken Anderson.
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